The Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRCF), an organization that fights for LGBTQ+ equality, has been the subject of anti-DE&I efforts over the last year and a half. And while some companies, including Walmart, Nissan, and Brown-Forman, have pulled out of the organization’s LGBTQ+ corporate benchmarking index, a new report finds that more are participating, and are becoming increasingly inclusive of LGBTQ+ workers.
Inclusion has grown. The organization released its annual Corporate Equality Index (CEI) today, with 1,449 participating companies—72 more than last year—including 376 of the Fortune 500. Almost all (98%) participating businesses now have gender identity and sexual orientation non-discrimination policies, up from just 5% when the index began in 2002.
Companies are also providing more information to all employees about their LGBTQ+ health benefits. Now, 75% of participating employers offer an LGBTQ+ health benefits guide, up from 63% in 2024. Most also provide LGBTQ+ benefits such as partner medical benefits (82%), equal family benefits (92%), and gender-affirming care benefits (87%). Some 72% also provide gender transition guidelines and policies so employees can appropriately support their colleagues who may be going through the gender transition process.
Benefits like gender-affirmative care have become table-stakes for employers competing for talent, compared to 2009, when just 8% of companies offered it. “We can’t really say that you are an inclusive employer for the LGBTQ+ community if we aren’t including all members within that…it’s imperative for an employer to understand the needs of their workforce and have accessible benefits that meet those needs,” RaShawn “Shawnie” Hawkins, senior director of workplace equality at HRCF, told HR Brew.
Research has found that LGBTQ+ talent seek out companies with inclusive policies and benefits, and 20% would look for another job if their company went back on its inclusion efforts, HR Brew previously reported.
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Big picture. Hawkins believes that employers continue to participate in the CEI because they want to be inclusive, and that the anti-DE&I movement isn’t as strong as its leaders want others to believe.
Yet, DE&I opponents like Robby Starbuck have made some headway: Molson Coors, for example, previously donated $1 million to HRC, but changed its donation policies and stopped participating in the CEI due to Starbuck campaigning against the organization last year, USA Today reported.
Despite Starbuck’s loud and constant attacks on the LGBTQ+ community (one analysis found he targeted it in roughly half of his social media posts), Hawkins said the work toward inclusion is continuing.
“The results of this current survey show that a handful of companies who are fair-weather fans of DE&I work, captured the media cycle, and wasn’t an accurate representation of American corporations,” Hawkins told HR Brew. “The majority of companies value the core components of diversity, equity and inclusion in their workplaces, and want to ensure that their workforce is seen and included in the policies and best practices that they put forth.”
Regardless of who holds political office or leads the public pressure campaigns, Hawkins believes that progress will continue at many employers.
“The deeper your roots are into creating safe and affirming environments, the stronger you are to weather the storm,” she said. “If your roots aren’t that deep, then you’re easy to blow over. So do some evaluations. See how deep your roots are.”
